Western Culture (part 1) (2014-2015).pdf

Western Culture (part 1) Aarón Villegas Henan Agricultural University Culture “Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning” Western culture “Western culture […] is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, such as the countries of the Americas and Australasia, and is not restricted to the continent of Europe.” Global village ? The world seems to be getting smaller. ? Trains, planes, telephones, televisions, the Internet, and other forms of modern transportation and communication reduce time and distance between people from different parts of the world. ? The whole world is like a village, a global village. ? In this village, countries are families and continents are neighbourhoods. Global village ? Markets and businesses are global. – Ex.: if one family house in the village burns down, the rest of the families will be affected because they would have to help them. (The economic crisis in Spain or Greece affects all Europe) ? Neighbours must get on well with each other. ? Nowadays, the countries (families) of the world (global village) depend more and more on each other. Challenges of the global village ? Everyone needs to: ? learn about other cultures and know their neighbours better ? learn how to communicate across cultures ? learn how to think, feel and behave in new ways ? In other words, we need to improve our intercultural skills. Culture is like an iceberg Culture is like an iceberg ? Like an iceberg, only some part of the culture is visible. Aspects of culture that we can easil